The Hold Steady

A deep undercurrent of solid, straight-forward rock music flows from the northernmost reaches of the Mississippi River in Minneapolis-St Paul, Minn. Over the last several decades, the Twin Cities have produced a disproportionately high crop of good bands – some who've made their way into the heart of the pop-rock mainstream, and others that have not experienced the same degree of commercial success, but nonetheless cultivated devoted fan bases and critical acclaim. Prince and Soul Asylum became household names in the 80's and 90's respectively, while groups like Hüsker Dü, Babes in Toyland and The Replacements found a solid footing in the underground scene. The last of those – the Paul Westerberg-leg Replacements – were perpetually on the verge of breaking through to a larger audience, but never could quite find the right pairing of band stability and radio single to achieve mainstream status. Perhaps that was just as well, given the band's ultimately short shelf life.

Forging head with Minneapolis-inspired Americana rock is The Hold Steady, and their fifth album, Heaven is Whenever. Lead singer/songwriter Craig Finn channels his Rust Belt-flavored Catholicism through filters of Springsteen, Elvis Costello, The Clash, and yes, The Replacements, to concoct a gritty, lyrically-driven sound, much like Brian Fallon's approach in the Gaslight Anthem, albeit with a bit less punk and more Bob Seger. Unlike the band's previous efforts – such as 2006's Boys and Girls in America and Stay Positive, released two years later – Heaven is Whenever does not charge the listener from the outset with a flowing stream of heartland narrative and guitar crunch. Rather, Finn and his three mates ease-in slowly, with another ode to their hometown in "The Sweet Part of the City," positioning the scene on Hennepin Avenue in the album's first line. The ballad is much closer to Seger's own "Mainstreet," featuring slide guitar work and shout-outs to parish-driven neighborhoods like St. Theresa's. Its a tableaux any resident of Cleveland, Detroit or Buffalo could recognize.

The collection builds steam more gradually more than any other Hold Steady offering, truly hitting its stride at the fifth track, "Rock Problems." The driving cut, featuring guitar harmonies at its middle, could have easily found a home on Costello's 1978 LP, This Year's Model, with a call-and-answer chorus and nearly-clean riffs yielding its pulse. It is followed-up two tracks later with the album's best number, "Hurricane J," with a Rick Springfield Jesse's Girl-chord progression, perhaps a nod to the same character name Springfield deployed in 1984. It's catchy, loud and among of the most pop-friendly tunes they've done.

Meanwhile, sandwiched in between the two rockers is perhaps Finn's most beautiful effort with the band, "We Can Get Together," which also spawns the album's title. While The Hold Steady could never produce anything described as lilting, the song's acoustic-guitar center and jangly electric overlays is certainly the closest the now four-piece group has ever ventured towards quiet. Drawing-in lyrical references ranging from their Minneapolis predecessors, Husker Du, to Meatloaf's "Paradise by the Dashboard Light," there is no confusing Finn's intentions for the track with lyrics such as, "I only had one single, it was a song about a pure and simple love" and "let it shine down on us all, let it warm us from within."

Among the 10-song collection's other surprises is a clarinet solo at the midway point of "Barely Breathing," given that not all that many clarinets are found in rock music, especially in a lurching account of the happenings at a late-night rock club. Ben Folds' "Stephen's Last Night in Town" may be the last time a clarinet was featured so prominently.

As solid as Heaven is Whenever is, it does suffer from the recent departure of pianist/keyboardist Franz Nicolay, who left the band amicably before the record to pursue other interests. Although piano, organ and keyboard parts supplied by Dan Neustadt can be detected on various tracks, none feature the instruments as prominently as Nicolay's, such as "Party Pit" from Boys and Girls in America or "Constructive Summer" off of Stay Positive, where his work drew the band closer to the powerful groups fronted by Springsteen or Seeger. Nicolay's contributions also offered some oft-needed musicality and variation to the group's more unadorned foundation, and that influence is missed here.

Come for: "Rock Problems"
Stay for: "Hurricane J"
You'll be surprised by "We Can Get Together"

The New Pornographers

The phrase "indie-rock supergroup" is an oxymoron. How is a band that prides itself on independence and unique ideas supposed to be comprised of members of other like-minded groups? Out of that paradox steps Vancouver's The New Pornographers, and their fifth release, Together, available as of today.

First organized in 2000 by former Superconductor and Zumpano frontman Allan Carl (A.C.) Newman, the octet also includes current and former members of Destroyer (co-lead singer and guitarist Dan Bejar), the Immaculate Machine (Kathryn Calder, co-lead vocals, keyboards and accordian), The Evaporators (uber-multi-instrumentalist John Collins) and Limblifter (drummer Kurt Dahle and guitarist Todd Fancey). But Newman's real coup was luring accomplished solo singer/songwriter Neko Case into the fold. Simply put, Case is the best singer in rock music these days, with an immensely powerful set of pipes and the ability to rocket any song to the stratosphere. And yet, while Case's solo material is intelligent, genuine and emotionally powerful, she stays closer to the alt-country approach, which can limit the explosiveness of her vocal talent. Starting with the New Pornographers' first album, Mass Romantic in 2000, the project has allowed her to unleash blistering performances, such as "Letter from an Occupant," "All for Swinging You Around" and "The Bleeding Heart Show." Note how, in the latter of these selections, Case takes over focal duties from Newman at the song's midpoint and transforms the theretofore mid-tempo ballad into a melee with only a single line of lyrics ("we have arrived...too late, to play the Bleeding Heart Show").

It is along these lines that the group presents Together, not deviating from the general framework that has brought the band this far: craft irresistibly hooky power pop gems, introduce some George Martin-meets-David Gilmour studio wizardry, and spread the lead vocals among Bejar, Caldwell, Case and Newman. Not surprisingly, the collection's best tune is its first single, the Case-fronted, acoustic guitar-driven number, "The Crash Years." The track's chorus comes quickly and laden with vocal harmonies and monstrous hooks. In quintessential New Pornographers fashion, it'll have you whistling in no time, aided, of course, by a keyboard riff mimicking the famous whistling part in Bridge Over the River Kwai.

The ear candy is not spared elsewhere on the 13-song effort. Newman's opening number, "Moves," likewise features punchy keyboards and organs, along with crunching Sloan-style guitar riffs. And the group's communal songwriting approach has yet to find a gang vocal it can resist, as heard in "Your Hands (Together)" – a likely set opener on their forthcoming tour – and the Kathryn Caldwell-led "Sweet Talk, Sweet Talk." Meanwhile, late-album offering "Valkyrie in the Roller Disco" introduces a quirky sensibility befitting its offbeat title, featuring a banjo-and-piano accompaniment that's interestingly subdued for a New Pornographers production.

Still, while Together is generally an impressive collection of very listenable and foot-tapping numbers, its also not their pinnacle. Initially, it's not all that noticeably better than their previous recordings. There are no dominant performances like "Sing Me Spanish Techno" or "The New Face of Zero and One" from previous albums that could startle a new listener to the band with their sheer power. The band's lyrics seem to allude to this in "Your Hands (Together)," saying "you can only cover so much territory, of course." Moreover, my lowest degree of interest in the group has always been Bejar's vocals, which account for about a quarter of their total output. While he may a talented songwriter and a valued instrumentalist, I cannot abide the tenor of his voice, which could only be generously described as singing. This talk-to-beat style, with a Ziggy Stardust androgyny without Bowie's suaveness, appears on the Together tracks "Jenny Silver Dollar," "If You Can't See My Mirrors" and "Daughters of Sorrow." While these might be solid works of songwriting not out of step with the rest of the band's work – the latter of these featuring a nice They Might Be Giants-style horns – if the listener can't cozy-up to the singer's cadence and tone, it can be futile, as it is in my case.

Nonetheless, Together is a respectable effort from a set of performers that Newman can orchestrate into a cohesive sound, and which will produce a good handful of tracks that can be staples of their live shows.

Come for: "The Crash Years"
Stay for: "Your Hands (Together)"
You'll be surprised by: "Valkyrie in the Roller Disco"

The 1900s

Envision a hybrid of the Moody Blues and the New Pornographers – who, by the way, we'll be featuring in next week's New Music Tuesdays with their release of Together – and you'll arrive at something sounding like The 1900s and their 2009 EP, Medium High. Featuring multiple lead vocalists fronting pop-heavy, hook-laden tunes like the New Pornographers and lush orchestrations and a bit of scaled-back psychadelia like the Moody Blues, The 1900s offer very listenable tracks including a nice range of instruments that don't overpower the senses.

The seven-piece, Chicago-based outfit is arguably led by singer/guitarist Edward Anderson, who fronts the group with a Justin Heyward-type approach, distributing the collection's seven tracks among a capable stable of musicians and singers, which round his medieval-sounding compositions into more accessible psych-pop constructions. He is most significantly aided in these efforts by singers Jeannie O’Toole and Caroline Donovan, who add much needed lift and colour to songs like "Collections" and "A Face I Know." Not only do O'Toole and Donovan harmonize nicely with each other and Anderson, but they help transform tracks such as "Making Love in the Summertime" from fairly aloof and wispy affairs you'd expect from Belle and Sebastian to something more akin to the work of The Essex Green and early era Rilo Kiley.

Album-opener "Collections" is probably the most intriguing of the collection, falling somewhere near an Our Time in Eden offering like "Stockton Gala Days" by Jamestown, New York's 10,000 Maniacs, featuring an acoustic guitar / piano foundation highlighted by violinist Kristina Dutton's string accompaniment. And if only the proceeding "When I Say Cohen" has a bit more percussion power, it could find a spot on heatseeker lists, with the co-lead vocals of Donovan and O'Toole giving voice to some interesting lyrical interplay such as the following:

"I've been in touched in places by very scary hands / If anyone should ask me, I'll tell them I don't know / I've been leaving all my clues like footprints in the snow"

But the track lays off the pedal a bit too frequently, and Anderson's Byrds-style Rickenbacker work leaves the number a little too hazy for it to find its footing.

The record's closing instrumental, "Gay Peace" is an interesting location to end-up with, with a neat guitar-piano-violin trio laying in a hypnotic vibe that has an almost countrified air for being essentially a chamber pop number. Unfortunately, at just 2:41, it leaves the listener wanting a little more, which may not be all that bad a way to end the collection. Hopefully The 1900s will return in not too long a time with a full-length offering to build on this, and its LP-length predecessor, Cold & Kind.

Come for: "Collections"
Stay for: "When I Say Cohen"
You'll be surprised by: "Gay Peace"

Titus Andronicus

One rarely ever equivocates civil war history with punk rock. The former is often perceived as staid, dense and clouded in mythology, while the later is brash, sharp and blunt. And yet the Glen Rock, New Jersey-based quintet Titus Andronicus has charged itself with the mission of uniting the two in its sophomore effort, The Monitor.

Lead singer and songwriter Patrick Stickles is apparently quite the Civil War buff and has dedicated his craft in this 10-track affair to utilizing traces of history from that bloody and tragic period to metamorphosize his own personal narrative to a punk foundation primarily forged by American-based punks like The Replacements and Hüsker Dü.

Of course, coming from New Jersey and unleashing any form of rock within a klick (how bout that reference for military terminology) of Thunder Road must pay homage to the Oracle at Asbury Park. Stickles and his mates get this work underway quickly in the album opener, "A More Perfect Union." While he he first intones our 16th President by quoting his address to the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, IL, in January, 1838, he quickly moves on to his search for "a new New Jersey, because tramps like us, baby, we were born to die." Getting the Boss accolades out of the way early is wise so his lyrics can guide us ably, if joltingly, between Springsteen's Jersey and Lincoln's troops at Gettysburg not all that far way from the Garden State. Complete with references to Jeff Davis and the Battle Hymn of the Republic, Stickles does his due diligence transporting us to the scene and rallying up our patriotic ardor. Drummer Eric Harm might as well be fronting the 20th Maine up Little Round Top as the track marches to its apex.

The use of historic quotes as tablesettings are pervasive throughout the recording, which also includes interludes from Uncle Walt's "Vigil Strange," Jefferson Davis himself, and Lincoln in his First Inaugural and his letter to Mary Todd of January, 23, 1841, where he pronounces himself "the most miserable man living." But more poignant to Titus Adronicus' work is their inclusion of William Lloyd Garrison's "To The Public" in inaugural edition of The Liberator, January 1831, where Garrison proclaims his mission as follows:

I will be as harsh as truth and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish to speak, or think, or write with moderation. I am in earnest. I will not equivocate, I will not excuse, I will not retreat a single inch, and I will be heard.

Such a declaration inhabits the very credo of punk rock, and its presence here is the perfect lead-in for the second track, "Titus Andronicus Forever" (which follows its even more eponymous predecessor on the band's debut, The Airing of Grievances). Stickles gets the most out of his lyrics here, with the track's musical chaos serving as the backdrop for his warnings that "the enemy is everywhere!" At all of 1 minute and 55 seconds, the song must not include any largess to diminish the urgency of its message, and it succeeds in doing so here – along with its reprisal seven tracks later in "...And Ever."

A couple other tracks are especially noteworthy. Nearly all of them – aside from the two discussed in the preceding paragraph – run past the punk-approved track time of no more than 3 minutes, and grand shifts in several of them indicate they were likely the result of mergers between two theretofore separate numbers. The most interesting of these contrasts can be found in "A Pot in Which to Piss." While the first five minutes gradually builds from a slow and melodic intro, the second aspect introduces a rollicking piano part by pianist/guitarist David Robbins. Here is where the group reaches out its musical direction the most towards The Boss and his colleagues in an effort that wouldn't sound out of place on The River. It's a great 3 and a half minutes of rock gospel.

Additionally, the duet between Stickles and Cassie Ramone of the Vivian Girls on "To Old Friends and New" is a nice change of pace ballad, and although album closer "The Battle of Hampton Roads" clocks in at a whopping 14:02, it includes all the fare one would expect in such an opus, including a minute-and-a-half guitar solo, horns and bagpipes. Here Stickles references the legendary battle between the world's first ironclad warships – of which the Union's ship provides the title for the record – and uses the conflict to to illuminate the more modern battle that wages in culture today and in his life in particular. Given its length and morose content matter – which is most similar to the Arcade Fire's "Antichrist Television Blues" – it might not make the most compelling live performance, but within the confines of studio and microphone, the track can stretch out and serve the function its author intended.

Come for: "A More Perfect Union"
Stay for: "Titus Andronicus Forever" / "...And Ever"
You'll be surprised by: "To Old Friends and New

P.S. The group and Cassie Ramone recently took a fun turn on the Weezer classic (yikes, does that make me feel old) "Undone [the Sweater Song]." Check it out here.

Butch Walker

(The author requests your kind indulgence for the lack of posts the two previous weeks, the first on account of his birthday and the latter due to an unexpected trip to New York to preview Green Day's American Idiot on Broadway.)

There are some songwriters who have a true sense of what elements are necessary for a catchy tune. These folks have a refined appreciation for how the precise blend of witty lyrics, an irresistible chorus hook or the well-timed string part or four-part harmony can satiate our craving for humor, originality and accessibility in a single stroke. Brian Wilson, Rivers Cuomo, Ben Folds and Adam Schlesinger, among others, have such talents, but you've probably heard of them. You probably have not heard of Butch Walker.

After spending the late 80's and early-to-mid 90's fronting earnest, but not terribly successful outfits such as SouthGang, The Flyods and Marvelous 3, Walker has not only produced a series of catchy solo records, but has also penned tunes for a collection of top-drawer talent, including Avril Lavigne, Pink, American HiFi, Pete Yorn, Fall Out Boy, Taylor Swift and, most recently, Weezer's "If You're Wondering If I Want You To (I Want You To)." While I may not be the biggest fan of all of these acts, Walker's resume as a songwriter in demand speaks for itself.

With these efforts as a backdrop, in 2010, Walker produced his latest album, I Liked It Better When You Had No Heart. The 11-track production scores a number of instantly likable tunes that make plain Walker's talents as both musician and wordsmith. Leading off with the soft-pedaled social commentary of "Trash Day," the number could have easily appeared on Fountains of Wayne's power pop masterpiece Welcome Interstate Managers with lyrics like
"trash day in Atlanta, Ga., I can hear the sanitary trucks from two miles away," and a screaming Hammond organ part. Its 3 minutes and 7 seconds of pure saccharine pop joy.

Walker follows-up later on in the collection with the Elvis Costello-esque "Temporary Title," with a driving acoustic guitar rhythm track and plenty of "whoa-oahs" and "la las" in a singalong chorus, layered with strings and a Farfisa organ. Meanwhile, "She Likes Hair Bands" features a stomp-stomp-clap chorus in the Queen or Kansas tradition that will have listeners humming along by the 3rd refrain, which transitions without pause at its pinnacle into the equally upbeat "House of Cards," which has much in common with the recent syncopated work of the California group The Broken West.

Where Walker's I Liked It Better... runs into trouble is not with any of the songs, per se, but rather with the collection's sequencing. The tracks referenced above represent the album's uptempo numbers, which are balanced out with another half-dozen slower tunes. This is fine, and individually, each offering is enjoyable, but instead of front-loading the record with the more upbeat songs, Walker inserts a trio of less accessible material in its 3rd through 5th tracks. For instance, "Don't You Think Someone Should Take You Home" is a pleasant folk-rock number with lovely string and horn interludes. But when followed by the ethereal "Stripped Down Version" (which, in fact, is a bit of a misnomer) and the more somber ode to gambling with foreign currency, "Canadian Ten," – a natural album-closer – the track order dumps a bucket of cold water on what would otherwise be a quite buoyant effort. So, while I certainly recommend you purchase I Liked It Better... in its entirety, I'd suggest that you use the electronic music technology and applications available today to re-sequence the collection thusly:

1) Trash Day
2) Temporary Title
3) Pretty Melody
4) She Likes Hair Bands
5) House of Cards
6) Don't You Think Someone Should Take You Home
7) Days/Months/Years
8) Stripped Down Version
9) Be Good Until Then
10) They Don't Know What We Know
11) Canadian Ten

Come for: "She Likes Hair Bands"
Stay for: "Trash Day"
You'll be surprised by: "Don't You Think Someone Should Take You Home"

P.S. A true reflection of the promise of Walker's work can be found in a single track off his 2008 record, Sycamore Meadows: "The Weight of Her." Here, Walker conjures a spot-on reflection of the vocal harmonies of Tom Petty's "Here Comes My Girl" in the chorus, which fit extremely well with the tune's Americana vibe. If you're after a rousing intro to Walker's overall work, start here.

Valery Gore

If you know me and my taste and music, you know that I like songs with horns. I also like songs played on the piano. Tronna's own Valery Gore produces songs that have both piano and horns, which makes me like her 2008 offering, Avalanche to Wandering Bear.

Now, it would be not only unfair to compare Gore's work to a certain other Canadian songstress/pianist, it would also largely be inaccurate. Her jazz-cum-brainy playing style is more similar to Randy Newman's and her vocal approach more akin to A Fine Frenzy's Alison Sudol than Ms. Mitchell's vocal acrobatics. She takes her songwriting cues from Tori Amos' slightly (ok, not slightly) bizarre songbook moreso than fellow Canuck Sarah McLaughlin's more narrative format.

Gore moves fluidly through a series of piano-focused styles in the course of Avalanche's baker's dozen tracks. The collection takes off with the effervescent "Shoes of Glass," an uptempo number in the recent piano-power pop tradition of the past decade or so, before introducing the horns in the closing third of "Another Year," which takes a full minute to warm up from Gore's solo piano-and-vocals intro.

The album's gem is the rollicking third tune, "Worried Head," replete with jubilant horn accompaniment. She channels her foremost Tori Amos on the number, with lyrics bordering on the morbid:

Without that beautifully worried head, there’d just be a bleeding neck;
A boneless back, a creeping ghost and heart attack,
without a worried head

Thankfully, the arrangement more than offsets the troubling nature of the content and moves it to the more interesting space occupied by songs like They Might Be Giants' "Turn Around" or Moxy Fruvous' "Splatter, Splatter."

Meanwhile, "Scared" rolls along like a deep cut from Thelonious Monk and mid-album track "Knife Dream" finds Gore accompanied not by her own piano parts, but a hazy jazz horn duo, which nicely draws out the warm accents of her lower alto range. And the moderate sycnopation delivered by late-album pick "Consolation" offers a welcome change of pace to the collection's outer reaches, which are largely populated by earnest, but not especially captivating ballads.

Gore does credit to The Big Smoke with her interestingly-crafted and suitably-performed record, and lets hope her span between new albums is narrower than the gap between her 2005 self-titled debut and her work here on Avalanche.

Come for: "Shoes of Glass"
Stay for: "Worried Head"
You'll be surprised by: "Consolation"

fun.

Most reviews of entertainment mediums produce their "Best Of" sections at the end of a given calendar year. Rather than that staid and predictable approach, this blog has the courage to be different – or, more likely, lazy - more than two months into the new year. Accordingly, the selection for Best Album of 2009 is the incomparably enjoyable Aim & Ignite by the briefly-named New York trio, fun.

If you know me at all, you know that I am pushing this band harder than Gary Bettman is pushing hockey right now. For a band less than a year old, fun. comes blazing out of the gate with the most ambitious recording of the year. It benefits from exceptional musicianship, daring songwriting, infectious hooks and quirky lyrics. The studio band is the compact merging of remenants of other bands in singer/lyricist Nate Reuss (formerly of The Format), multi-instrumentalist-primed Andrew Dost (previously a spare part in Anathallo) and guitarist Jack Antonoff (tracing his roots to Steel Train), fun. compresses a galaxy's worth of influences into 10 tracks of substantial variance in style, tone and pace. Regardless of their form, they all ring true to the band's moniker: fun. There are strings and horns, searing guitar solos and thunderous drum fills, gang vocals and high harmonies. One line, in particular, from the mid-album ballad "Light a Roman Candle with Me," neatly sums up the band's approach:

"if we were honest and both wrote a sonnet together,
a sandwich with everything on it..."

Beyond just piling on a ton of instruments and stewing up a melting pot of musical styles, Aim & Ignite has a decided and intentional feel to it, namely that of a well-produced LP from 1973. With Redd Kross bassist Steven McDonald spinning the knobs for Dost and Reuss' constructions, it is both impecably nuanced and positioned in a aural space that could never be confused with anything produced after 1978, in the way that an elaborite, but fragile Sufjan Stevans venture might. The band is savvy enough to offer the album on vinyl, and though the record sounds supurb under needle, it is not massively so when compared to digital formats, which draw out the collection's many subtle elements.

So, instead of my of my customary approach to pick out a few tracks from an album at hand and discuss their attributes, I'll spread out the entire record and note the influences (with links to videos of songs most similar to the fun. version) and notable aspects of each tune:

Track ** Influences ** Style
1) Be Calm ** XTC, Barenaked Ladies ** Lush Orchestration, Compact Narrative
2) Benson Hedges ** Queen, The Who, Bob Seeger ** Arena Rock
3) All the Pretty Girls ** Electric Light Orchestra ** 1977 AM Radio Hit
4) I Wanna Be the One ** The Beatles ** (Magical Mystery Tour to Sgt. Pepper's era)
5) At Least I'm Not as Sad (As I Used to Be) ** The Offspring, The Police ** Calypso
6) Light a Roman Candle with me ** Burt Baccarach ** Karen Carpenter Piano Ballad
7) Walking the Dog ** Vanpire Weekend, TV on the Radio ** House/Techno Rock
8) Barlights ** Steely Dan, Chicago (before they sucked) ** Blue-Eyed Soul
9) The Gambler ** Ben Folds ** 1st Dance @ Wedding
10 Take Your Time (Coming Home) ** The Eagles, Paul Simon's Graceland ** Americana

As you'll notice, the effort spans the spectrum of the last 40 years of development in rock-and-roll, from the genre's core to its fringes. Its sophisticated, but not weak, meaning that in as much as "Light a Roman Candle" and "The Gambler" might draw a fine bead of emotion, foot-stompers like "Barlights" and "Benson Hedges" would have no trouble filling every crevace of an arena with pure rock energy, while the masses would be hypnotized by "All the Pretty Girls" unavoidable chorus. And while recent acts like Ben Folds and to a lesser extent Metallica have produced some interesting collaborations with full-scale orchestras, this is truly a band who deserves a turn at the head of a symphony, for while Reuss, Dost and Antonoff broaden their tourning outfit to a healthy six-piece, hearing Dost's fine orchestrations – many of which he performed himself – realized in concert would truly be majestic. Let's hope they get the opportunity.

Come for: "All the Pretty Girls"
Stay for: "Barlights"
You'll be surprised by: the entire damn record

P.S. fun. is playing this Wednesday and Thursday at the 9:30 Club, supporting Jack's Mannequin (who really aren't very good, but everyone's got to pay their dues).